Mortgage helping my credit score?

CS800 · ‎03-17-2011

I bought my house in 2008 and have never been late on my mortgage.

However I dont see my mortgage helping my cause. After close to 2.5 years paying the mortgage, should that help boost my score; everything else being paid on time?

I seem to be stuck in the high 500. Cuurently my EQ as per myfico is 585. The score that I get on myfico.com, is it my real score?

Before experiencing financial problems, my EQ was 710 (up till 2006)

llecs · ‎03-17-2011

FICO scoring is interesting in that you really don't get any increases by paying on time, though you'll get dinged in a hurry if you are paying late. The only benefits of a mortgage per FICO scoring is mix of credit and length of credit history, and 2.5 years isn't a very long time in the scheme of things. The payment history also helps to dilute the bad, but it sounds like something else is holding your scores back.

MyFICO sells FICO scores. There are different types of FICO and non-FICO scores out there. If wanting to use the scores that lenders use, then your EQ FICO from myFICO is a good start. Other sites sell scores, but they aren't FICO scores and lenders don't use them.

Anonymous · ‎03-18-2011

@CS800 wrote:
I bought my house in 2008 and have never been late on my mortgage.

However I dont see my mortgage helping my cause. After close to 2.5 years paying the mortgage, should that help boost my score; everything else being paid on time?

I seem to be stuck in the high 500. Cuurently my EQ as per myfico is 585. The score that I get on myfico.com, is it my real score?

Before experiencing financial problems, my EQ was 710 (up till 2006)

Hi CS,

It appears that you are pulling your FICO score here. One of the great things about pulling that score is the uber-helpful report that comes along with it. Take a look at the items listed under "What's Helping Your FICO Score" and "What's Hurting Your FICO Score". The items under what's hurting your score are the issues that are holding your score down. If you list those items, you'll get lots of helpful feedback on how to improve your score. The Rebuilding Your Credit forums is a great place to post that information and get feedback.

Best wishes!

CS800 · ‎03-18-2011

Hello to both Mods who responded and thanks.

First reply stated, that there are several types of FICO out there but the one lenders and banks use is the myfico score.

That's excellent. I want to know what my true score is not some hyped up score. I signed up on credit karma and it's the transunion vantage score. But from the reviews on there, it seems that some people see big gap between their actual transunion score and their Credit KArma score.

That's what confuse people. Because there are som nay types out there, people go out and see their EQ fico from some other sites and see for example 650 but their true EQ is 590. Why would there even be such sites?

MarineVietVet · ‎03-18-2011

@CS800 wrote:
Hello to both Mods who responded and thanks.

First reply stated, that there are several types of FICO out there but the one lenders and banks use is the myfico score.

That's excellent. I want to know what my true score is not some hyped up score. I signed up on credit karma and it's the transunion vantage score. But from the reviews on there, it seems that some people see big gap between their actual transunion score and their Credit KArma score.

That's what confuse people. Because there are som nay types out there, people go out and see their EQ fico from some other sites and see for example 650 but their true EQ is 590. Why would there even be such sites?

HI there.

It absolutely can be confusing and very frustrating. All we can do is try to educate as many people as possible just how many "FAKO" scores there are out there. In fact almost all the "credit scores" available are not based on FICO scoring models and formulas and are useless since most lenders use FICO scores to make credit decisions.

No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU (PSECU) in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money.

At one time you could also purchase your Transunion score at www.transunioncs.com but that site seems to have stopped doing that. At www.equifax.com EQ will still sell you an EQ FICO score but you have to look very hard to find it.

Why do these places sell you a "score" without revealling all the facts? Can I be cynical and crass enough to say money?

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

llecs · ‎03-18-2011

@CS800 wrote:
Hello to both Mods who responded and thanks.

First reply stated, that there are several types of FICO out there but the one lenders and banks use is the myfico score.

That's excellent. I want to know what my true score is not some hyped up score. I signed up on credit karma and it's the transunion vantage score. But from the reviews on there, it seems that some people see big gap between their actual transunion score and their Credit KArma score.

That's what confuse people. Because there are som nay types out there, people go out and see their EQ fico from some other sites and see for example 650 but their true EQ is 590. Why would there even be such sites?

There's a common misconception out there that if any given service or website offers scores, then they are FICO scores. That's definitely not the case. FICO is the predominate leader out there with lenders, and as "credit scores" gained popularity, other companies created competing scores to hype up their own service without paying fees to FICO for the use of their formula. We call these non-FICO scores "FAKOs". These FAKOs are certainly hyped, but have proven to be such a poor predictor of risk that lenders generally won't even touch them.

Over time, the three credit reporting agencies all developed their own scoring models to drum up business for their monitoring and credit products. Experian typically uses their own score called a PLUS score and that's found on those annoying commercials like freecreditreport.com, consumerinfo, triple alert, creditchecktotal, and others. TransUnion did that same with their TransRisk score (in the beginning) with services like TrueCredit and Zendough. And Equifax was late to the dance with their "Equifax Credit Score" for some of their services like Equifax Credit Complete. All 3 CRAs collaberated to create a score called a VantageScore and jointly they are offering it now as part of a service for TU and EX at the least and offer that to lenders to compete with FICO, but that's not taking. Finally, companies independent of the 3 CRAs created their own scores to cash in on the "credit score" fad with their own formulas. Services like IdentityGuard, PrivacyGuard, Quizzle, CreditInform and many others offer their own FAKO scores. Credit card companies did the same as well. Chase, Amex, CapOne, and many others resell FAKOs which tends to create confusion.

In short, with so many offerings for a score, and when the sites aren't always forthright in saying they scores aren't FICO-related, then it's easy to see where there's some confusion. It's definitely a money-maker for these other companies to offer a score, even if it isn't a FICO.

The sources for your FICO scores are limited, so I guess that makes it easier. You can get your EQ FICO from myFICO.com, your lender, or from a very hidden place from EQuifax.com (tough to find). You can only get your TU FICO from myFICO or from your lender (transunioncs.com used to offer it too, but no longer). Finally, you can only get your EX FICO from your lender. Now there are a couple of lenders out there that offer a FICO score as part of a service. PSECU comes to mind for an EX FICO and DCU for an EQ FICO. There are probably others.

ETA...I'm the slowest typer ever. That's what I get for posting at work.

MarineVietVet · ‎03-18-2011

@llecs wrote:

ETA...I'm the slowest typer ever. That's what I get for posting at work.

But what you wrote sounded SO nice!!!

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

CS800 · ‎03-18-2011

Great info.

So when I apply for an AMEX or a Chase etc, what scored do those guys check; IFCO or FAKO?

If it's FICO then I would consider other companies doing their own models some form of sham.

One can have an FAKO or 690 and a FICO or 600.for example which leads to wrong perception of ones score.

FRom Credit Karma which is Transunon my Vantage score is 678 but I think my real TU score is around 605 from FICO.Man

MarineVietVet · ‎03-18-2011

@CS800 wrote:
Great info.

So when I apply for an AMEX or a Chase etc, what scored do those guys check; IFCO or FAKO?

If it's FICO then I would consider other companies doing their own models some form of sham.

One can have an FAKO or 690 and a FICO or 600.for example which leads to wrong perception of ones score.

FRom Credit Karma which is Transunon my Vantage score is 678 but I think my real TU score is around 605 from FICO.Man

No CCC that I know of uses anything other than FICO scores (and other criteria of course) when making credit decisions except Amex who I believe (could be wrong) uses an internal scoring system.

Also not only does the VantageScore use different scoring formulas than FICO but the score ranges are not the same. VS ranges from 501-990 whereas FICO goes from 300-850.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

CS800 · ‎03-18-2011

@MarineVet

Seems like you have done well with your scored and recovered from BK. Could you share some tips about what you did?

- Number of credit cards you use

- Did you have collections and what did you do?

-Did you have lates? etc

We can learn a lot from your experience. This board give a lot of people like me the courage to face merciless credit world.

A friend of mine did a BK and 3 years later his scores were close to 700 with no credit card and no vehicle loan etc. I was confused since I thought that you needed to show a credit utilization histry and even some loans.